Taos with Mom, Lilly, John, Manie, Sean, Michael

After a week at home, we loaded up the car and drove back out of Denver. Our destination was New Mexico. We left early on Wednesday morning and made it to Taos in 4 hours and 15 minutes, a record! We lunched at Orlandos and then went to the house where we unpacked and got settled and a little while later, my mom arrived! That evening we went to dinner at Common Fire which was absolutely delicious! My mom and I walked the sage brush trail that evening and saw the most amazing sunset.
The next morning Mom, Davis, Samuel and I hiked Italianos. It's our favorite hike and it was wonderful! We stopped on our way down at the Taos Cow for sandwiches. Yum! In the evening, we all went to the Plaza for the the free Live Music that happens on Thursday nights. There had been a big monsoon that afternoon and it made for a pleasantly cool evening. The music was really good and we all danced. It was so fun. After the show, we walked to Bellas for dinner. The service was abysmal, but the food was delicious.
Late that night, Manie, Sean, Lilly and John arrived, but we were sleeping.
The next morning we all chatted and caught up and made plans. Sean had hurt his back the day before, but was still game to try to get out and about. That morning we drove to the pueblo and they all did the tour and the kids played pooh sticks on the bridge and got shouted at and mom bought them fry bread and we all had a pretty good morning. Then we drove to Arroyo Seco and stopped at the Cow again for more sandwiches before driving up to the ski valley for a picnic. We meant to picnic at the Bavarian, but it was closed for construction, we ate at the covered tables by the parking and then Manie, Lilly, John and Sam and I decided to hike while the others drove back down the mountain. We only made it a bit of a ways for our hike before a monsoon hit us and we drove back down the mountain ourselves. That evening we all went to KTAOS for happy hour. The kids played with other kids and their kite and we ate and drank and made merry. Then we came home and played dominoes on the porch with wine, pizza and a fire in the outside fire place. It was lovely.
Saturday morning, Mom had to drive to Santa Fe to pick up Denise. The rest of us drove to town and wandered the Farmer's market and the plaza. We stopped on the patio of the Adobe Bar to have a bloody mary and watch the Taos Pride Parade. Manie caught a hot dog! Then we split up and Michael and the kids and I ate lunch at Cuevas, which we love in the winter, but which was miserable that day as we were attacked by about a million flies. We packed up our things and headed to Espanola that afternoon for the purpose of this lovely family reunion- Marcie's 40th birthday.